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State of Minnesota v. John Thomas Leonard. MN Criminal procedure, hotel guest register
Police arrived at a Bloomington hotel and asked to see the guest register, particularly, the names of any guests who had paid cash. When they saw the name of John Thomas Leonard, someone with a criminal record, they decided to pay a visit. Leonard agreed that they could search anywhere in his room, but not his laptop, his phone, or a folder in which some checks were visible. At some point, Leonard decided to flee and was restrained. Police subsequently obtained a search warrant, and Leonard was eventually convicted of check forgery in Hennepin County District Court. He appealed, and the case was eventually heard by the Minnesota Supreme Court. Leonard argued that the initial warrantless search of the guest register violated Article 1, Section 10, of the Minnesota Constitution.
The high court agreed. It held that the police needed at least a "reasonable articulable suspicion" to search the guest register. Minn. Stat. 327.10 et seq. states that the register must be open and accessible to police, but that this statute did not authorize a warrantless search.
For these reasons, the court held that the lower court should have suppressed the evidence subsequently discovered. It therefore reversed the conviction.
No. A17-2061 (Minn. May 13, 2020).
Please see the original opinion for the court's exact language.
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Richard P. Clem is an attorney and continuing legal education (CLE) provider in Minnesota. He has been in private practice in the Twin Cities for 25 years. He has a J.D., cum laude, from Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul and a B.A. in History from the University of Minnesota. His reported cases include: Asociacion Nacional de Pescadores a Pequena Escala o Artesanales de Colombia v. Dow Quimica de Colombia, 988 F.2d 559, rehearing denied, 5 F.3d 530 (5th Cir. 1993), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1041 (1994); LaMott v. Apple Valley Health Care Center, 465 N.W.2d 585 (Minn. Ct. App. 1991); Abo el Ela v. State, 468 N.W.2d 580 (Minn. Ct. App. 1991).
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